Modeling

Over the past week I was working on modeling Robin Hood’s head. My first attempt was to sculpt the head out of a sphere polygon, and it came out pretty nice, but unfortunately it was not the best method for facial rigging and there were some flaws.  So I decided to start the modeling from beginning with another method, which is better in terms of rigging. I wasted one or two days of work but it was worth learning this technique. Below is a screenshot of my process so far and I just need to finish the back of the head.

Percentage: 85%  Time: 10 hours

Website

The first step before developing a theme for the website is to design three templates, then as a group we all vote for one. Then I will push that design even further and implement different color themes. Below are the three templates that I have designed for the upcoming website.

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Percentage:100%  Time: 7 hours

Architecture:

Below is a sitemap that shows the construction of the website:

0.0 Home

0.1 Home (logo)

0.2 Search

0.3 Sitemap

0.4 About Us: A brief text that describes the project, and its members

0.5 Contact: Each members contact information end expertise.

0.6 Footer: Copyright.

1.0 Tutorial: This section is a flash based tutorial that teaches the audiences the rules and the gameplay of the game. This is different than the actual tutorial in the game.

2.0 Characters: A profile page for each of the characters of our game, with quick facts and information about them based on the novels. Accordion menu

2.1 King Arthur

2.2 Tripod

2.3 Robin Hood

2.4 Tiny Tim

2.5 Tin Man

2.6 Billy Pilgrim

3.0  Gallery: A picture gallery of our arts and 3D renders of each character

4.0  Library: A database of books in PDF format for downloading.

Percentage: 100% Time: 1 hour

Color Theme:

This week, I also spent some time on choosing possible color themes for the website, based on the content and the mood of the game, and the target audiences. I studied some of the websites that target the same group of audience and came up with the following color themes suitable for the project:

Percentage: 100% Time: 2 hours

This is the new camera installed in the touch box. The new camera has a wider frame of view allowing the glass to be about 4 inches closer to it. This means that the box is 4 inches shorter than it previously was. More on the box design later in the post.

Time for installation and calibration –  2 hours Touch Box Completion – 75%

This is the box newly cut to it’s shorter size.

Excellent news for our final product as far as hardware goes. I have met with someone that does fiberglass work on cars that is both excited and agreed to do the fiberglass work to make our final box to hold the cameras. I have begun modeling the first of a few ideas on what this will look like, and have gotten the foam that I will need to sculpt for the fiberglass to go around. I have spent a lot of time researching the fiberglass process and it’s limitations. The method we will use is the same for making model plane fuselages. There will be a foam core that the fiberglass is wrapped around. Once the fiberglass is cured, I will pour gasoline into the core which will dissolve the foam leaving a hollow box. The extra bits of fiberglass will be trimmed off with a dremel tool that I have. It will be sanded down and painted with car paint to match the game’s theme and clear coat. The reason we will use fiberglass is that it will be lighter than a box made of wood or metal, is fairly cheap, incredibly strong, and we can get nice looking curves and a really smooth finish. This is very exciting for our group as we will now have a very visually appealing final product to present. Below is a render of the first design I have come up with based on our needs and the limitations of fiberglass. On the model, the part that hangs off the right side will hold the deck of cards, and the farthest part on that section will house the camera that will record which cards are coming into play. The next version of the models will have this camera on the top section of the device.

Time On research: 4 hours Touch Box Completion 75%

Below is the tripod model thus far. From the concept are the two front legs are the same, so this one will be duplicated. It is close to being finished. Once it is the third leg will be modeled, and finally the main body.

Time Spent Modeling: 8 hours Tripod Model Completion: 25%

A large part  of this project was deciding what we actually wanted to deliver. While a completely robust, go for it and play type of approach was unfortunately beyond the reach of what our team was capable of for this project, it was decided that just a “taste” would be sufficient, a short foray into the world of LexiConquest that proved, given the sufficient time and resources, this project could indeed be something quite excellent. So, what we created is what we called a “Guided Game Experience”, a carefully structured path through the title that would allow a player to see all aspects of the title without allowing a high level of freedom that would necessitate an unreasonable level of development.  In other words, we’re making players “follow the bouncing ball” through our game world so that they can experience the game world in a structured manner while still getting a hint of the possibilities of what could come next.

Here is the proposed “path”:

Guided Game Experience

1. Title Screen Comes up with these options:

• Story Mode (grayed out)
• Library (grayed out, for now)
• Quick Match (grayed out, online mode would be found here)
• Tutorial Match

Player will be required to go into Tutorial Match.

2. Tutorial Match Screen

• Loading element (artistic screen to be developed)

3. Match Screen

Game begins,  with each step being demonstrated to player with on-screen animations and type boxes teaching them how to play (including how to use the Camera Glyphs, the Touch Screen, as well as how to play the card game itself).

A few notes on this regard and what will be delivered over the course of this tutorial match:

• All developed Characters (6), and their attacks, will be represented
• All Lexicon cards (2)
• All Device cards (3)

The exact order of how this guided game will be run will be described shortly, but player will win…let’s return to title to explore more of LexiConquest

4. Title screen > Library

5. Goes to the Library. Game will describe what the library contains.

Player will select a book in the library (ie, Le Mort d’Arthur), which will contain:

• The text itself (a sample chapter)
• Dictionary Function (potentially…a player can look up words that they do not know in a given chapter)
• Related cards that you have
• Available quizzes (sample quiz)
• Upon completion of a quiz, show effect of update on character (for example, King Arthur receives +10 HP upon the completion of one of his quizzes)

End of “Guided Game Experience.”

Still with us?

The Card Game Itself

One of the most tremendous undertakings was to create an actual card game that could stand on its own as a fun experience and feel like a fully realized game. What we ended up with is a sort of Pokemon-Magic hybrid that we feel is both unique and complete. The basics of the rules are as follows:

Card Game Rules

Summary

• LexiConquest is a fun and strategic trading card video game that utilizes characters and events from classic literature. Players (called Librarians) compete with one another using their carefully constructed Libraries to reduce an opponent’s health to 0.

Card Types

• Character Cards- Character Cards are the cards which you will use to attack the opponent Librarian. They come from a large variety of stories throughout literary history and bring along attacks inspired by their adventures. Each Character Card has an HP (how much damage they sustain before being Returned), required Maneuvers (basically, energy needed before they can attack or defend) and an attack unique to them. Example: King Arthur (90 HP, Attack: Unity Slash: Does 10 damage +10 more damage for each Character you have in play besides King Arthur.)

• Lexicon Card – A one-time attack card based on a literary technique that is played and then discarded after the effect takes place. As these cards tend to be rather powerful, they may be used only once per turn. Example: Deus Ex Machina (Effect: remove one character from your opponent’s field and places it their Book Return).

• Device Cards- Similar to Lexicon Cards in that they are played and then discarded. However, you may use as many Device Cards per turn as you’d like. They are based on literary events and objects. Example: Frankenstein’s Lightning (Effect: Return one character from your Return Bin to your Bookshelf)

• Maneuver Cards- The games “energy”. Characters require a certain amount of maneuvers before they can use an attack. So, for example, Billy Pilgrim’s attack requires a maneuver of -> ->. So, two -> Maneuver Cards need be attached before he can use that attack. One may be attached per turn.

Playing Field

• Library (Deck)
• Bookshelf (Hand)
• In-Play Characters (Being Read, up to 5)
• Book Return (Discard Pile)

Basic How to Play

• Each player draws 5 cards
• Each player may place up to 5 Character Cards, face down, on the playing field. These Characters are “Being Read”
• The game begins. Each Librarian flips over their cards and Librarian One begins his or her turn by drawing a card. If he or she cannot, then his or her opponent wins.
• Each Librarian may do one of the following things, in this order, on their turn:
• Place a Character Card into Reading from his or her Bookshelf
• Attach a Maneuver Card to one Character, once per turn. If a Character Card was just placed this turn (not counting those played the first turn), you may not attach a maneuver card to that Character.
• Use one (or multiple) Device Cards.
• Use one Lexicon Card
• Each character that has the needed Maneuvers may use their attack.
• Calculating Damage The defending Librarian chooses which characters, if any, are able to block the incoming attacks. Any damage done to a character is maintained between turns (and, if their own HP reaches 0, they are discarded), and if all damage is not blocked, the Librarian him or herself takes the damage.
• Damage does not “roll.” For example, if Tripod’s attack does 50 damage to Tiny Tim, who has 40 HP, Tiny Tim is knocked out, but the extra 10 damage does not go through to hit the player, it is simply negated.
• Each LIBRARIAN has 200 HP, a number separate from a Character’s HP. A player uses Characters to defend against attacks from the other player, and to attempt to do damage to them as well.  If an opponent player’s HP reaches 0, victory is achieved.
• Repeat this order until one Librarian wins.

Now, here is the official progression of what will happen in the game tutorial:

Official Tutorial

1. Setup
   1. Both players draw 5 cards
   2. The player draws : Tiny Tim, Right, Right, Left, Personification
2. Turn 1
   1. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Robin Hood
      3. iii.      Attack:
   2. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Billy Pilgrim
      2. ii.      Place: Tiny Tim, Personification/Right
      3. iii.      Attack:
      4. iv.      Hand: Billy Pilgrim, Right, Left
3. Turn 2
   1. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Tripod, Maneuver (Robin Hood 1/2)
      3. iii.      Attack:
   2. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Time Shift
      2. ii.      Place: Billy Pilgrim, Right (Tiny Tim 1/1)
      3. iii.      Attack: Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns)
      4. iv.      Hand: Time Shift, Right, Left
4. Turn 3
   1. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Maneuver (Robin Hood 2/2)
      3. iii.      Attack: Robin Hood > Personified Card (Player discards personified card)
   2. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Up
      2. ii.      Place: Up (Billy Pilgrim 1/2)
      3. iii.      Attack: Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns)
      4. iv.      Hand: Time Shift, Right, Left
5. Turn 4
   1. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Maneuver (Tripod 1/4)
      3. iii.      Attack: Robin Hood > Tiny Tim (HP 30/40), Alliteration (Player Draws 2 cards: left, down)
   2. Player
      1. i.      Draw: King Arthur
      2. ii.      Place: King Arthur, Down (Billy Pilgrim 2/2)
      3. iii.      Attack: Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns)
      4. iv.      Hand: Time Shift, Right, Left, Left
6. Turn 5
   1. Resolve Multi Turn Attacks/Device: Robin Hood > Tiny Tim (Tiny Tim HP 20/40)
   2. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Maneuver (Tripod 2/4)
      3. iii.      Attack: Deus Ex Machina > King Arthur (KA is discarded)
   3. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Personification
      2. ii.      Place: Personification/Left
      3. iii.      Attack: Billy Pilgrim > Robin Hood (HP 40/60, Player Draws Tin Woodsman), Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns), Time Shift (NPC discards 2, player draws 2: Frankenstein’s Lightning, Left)
      4. iv.      Hand :Tin Woodsman, Frankenstein’s Lightning, Right, Left, Left)
7. Turn 6
   1. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Maneuver (Tripod 3/4)
      3. iii.      Attack: Robin Hood > Billy Pilgrim (HP 60/70)
   2. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Deus Ex Machina
      2. ii.      Place: Tin Woodsman
      3. iii.      Attack: Billy Pilgrim > Robin Hood (20/60 Player draws 2 cards: King Arthur, Right), Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns)
      4. iv.      Hand: King Arthur, Frankenstein’s Lightning, Deus Ex Machina, Right, Left, Left
8. Turn 7
   1. Resolve Multi-turn Attacks/Devices: Robin Hood > Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim HP 50/70)
   2. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Maneuver (Tripod 4/4)
      3. iii.      Attack: Robin Hood > Tiny Tim (Tiny Tim 10/40)
   3. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Graveyard Daemons
      2. ii.      Place: King Arthur, Left (Tin Woodsman (1/2)
      3. iii.      Attack: Tiny Tim > Robin Hood (RH now attacks for 20HP over 2 turns)
      4. iv.      Hand: Frankenstein’s Lightning, Graveyard Daemons, Deus Ex Machina, Right, Left
9. Turn 8
   1. Resolve Multi-turn Attacks/Devices: Robin Hood > Tiny Tim (Tiny Tim HP 0/40, player discards Tiny Tim)
   2. NPC
      1. i.      Draw:
      2. ii.      Place: Up (Tripod, Tripod’s attack +10), Robin Hood > Tin Woodsman (Tin Woodsman HP 50/60)
      3. iii.      Attack: Tripod > Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim HP 10/70)
   3. Player
      1. i.      Draw: Down
      2. ii.      Place: Frankenstein’s Lightning (King Arthur), Left (Tin Woodsman 2/2)
      3. iii.      Attack: Billy Pilgrim > Robin Hood (Robin Hood HP 0/60, player retrieves Tiny Tim from their return pile), Tin Woodsman > Tripod (Tripod HP 70/100, NPC discards top card of library), King Arthur (+20 for allies) > Tripod (Tripod HP 40/100)
      4. iv.      Hand: Tiny Tim, Graveyard Daemons, Deus Ex Machina, Right, Down
10. Turn 9
    1. NPC
       1. i.      Draw:
       2. ii.      Place: Tin Man
       3. iii.      Attack: Tripod > Tin Man (Tin Man HP 30/60)
    2. Player
       1. i.      Draw: Graveyard Daemons
       2. ii.      Place: Tiny Tim
       3. iii.      Attack: Deus Ex Machina > Robin Hood (RH is discarded), Graveyard Daemons (NPC shuffles hand back into deck), King Arthur (+30 for allies) > Tripod (Tripod HP 0/100), Tin Man > Opposing Librarian (Librarian HP 70/100), Billy Pilgrim > Opposing Librarian (Librarian HP 50/100)
       4. iv.      Hand: Graveyard Daemons, Right, Down
11. Turn 10
    1. NPC
       1. i.      Draw:
       2. ii.      Place: Tiny Tim
       3. iii.      Attack: Deus Ex Machina > King Arthur (King Arthur is discarded)
    2. Player
       1. i.      Draw: Down
       2. ii.      Place:
       3. iii.      Attack: Tin Man > Opposing Librarian (Librarian HP 20/100), Billy Pilgrim > Opposing Librarian (Librarian HP 0/100)
       4. iv.      Hand: Graveyard Daemons, Right Down, Down
12. Player Wins!

Now, we know that was a lot to absorb, but we’re sure you can see the large amount of work that went into this, and how useful this framework will be as we continue along in development. Of course, this is not all we have accomplished as of recently. To date, every character has begun to be modeled, Tracy, our latest team member, has been officially brought up to speed and introduced to the Gantt chart, and has begun the designs and animations of the Lexicon and Device cards.

On the web front, Hessam has begun development of one of the sections of the website, the card collection portion and Mike has further developed the Library Arena that will be used as the backdrop for the game. Meanwhile, sketches are being done to develop how the fronts and backs of the cards will look, and the logo has been given an update. On the technology side of things, the touchscreen has been further finessed to utilize fiberglass.

Things are going swimmingly. Onward and upward.

So this week has had some ups and downs. I have discovered that the computer I have been using in the labs seems to corrupt Maya binary files when it saves them. I am hoping I can recover the files containing the library furniture. I have updated the Gantt chart to show this setback. Over all I am not extremely worried about the time lost just yet, I feel that I can make it up relatively easy. Unfortunately due to the loss/corruption of the furniture files all I really have to show this week is the mostly done head of King Arthur. In all I have spent about thirty or so hours (based on the setbacks I would say only about 15-20% input for the week) working on things this week, a good fourteen hours went into King Artur, the rest was spent on modeling pieces of the Library. The good news is that I have solidified how I want the Library to look, at the beginning of this week I am going to prepare a document to share with the group. Jason had expressed some interest in having an asset list so he can take on Library elements as a brake from other things, I figure it’s not a terrible idea, I will have the final document posted for next week. The following images are King Arthur’s head.

This week I mainly worked on catching up with the rest of the team since I wasn’t part of the planning process last semester and I’m new to the game.  I got my account set up so I can post to the PPJ and got a dropbox account so I can access all of our files.  I added myself to our gantt chart and went over what a realistic timeline is for my tasks.

I will primarily be responsible for the five Device/Lexicon card effects (Graveyard Daemon, Time Shift, Personification, Deus Ex Machine, and Frankenstein’s Lightning).  Since we’ll only be using renders of these animations it’s not necessary that I do them in Maya, so I’ve been doing some research trying to figure out whether it will be easier for me to create these in Maya or 3ds Max.  Recently I’ve had more experience in Max which is why I am considering it as opposed to Maya, but I also have more particle experience in Maya.  I am allotting one week per Device/Lexicon card, but this can be adjusted depending on the difficulty of the card and if I am needed on other tasks.  After I complete these animations I will be devoted to programming and working with Jason to make sure the game actually works.

This week was my brainstorming/onboarding week so I have basic sketches and ideas for my cards.  I realized that it will be difficult to have the cards effect the character cards without creating additional reaction animations for all of the characters.  I’m going to try to keep the animations for these cards entirely self contained so that they don’t need to be integrated with each of the character cards.

Time Shift: This card causes the opponent to lose the top two cards of their deck and the player draws two cards.  The effect I’m going for with this card is a particle storm of instanced cards.  Once we have the final card front and back designs done I can create a swirling particle storm in Maya and instance in a few different card types that can whip around the central Time Shift card.

Personification: This card turns into a 20hp creature that will block damage for one of the player’s character cards.  The original idea was to have words whirl around a box and dissolve to reveal a creature in the box’s place.  I also thought it might be fun to have words whirl around the character instead (I can make sure to have these whirling words use a large enough circumference so they don’t interact with any of the characters) and then coalesce to form a semitransparent bubble around the character, but it would have creature characteristics such as translucent eyes and a big mouth full of teeth.  We can gradually increase its transparency as it absorbs damage and then use a pop animation once it has lost its full 20hp.

Deus Ex Machina: This card returns the selected character card to their respective owner’s hand and ends the current player’s turn.  The original idea for this card was to have golden orbs fly across the screen and wipe the character away.  Since this doesn’t require the character move or react it should be possible to just mask out the character as orbs fly.  This can be accomplished either by using particles or, if we’d prefer to use fewer orbs in order to simplify the masking process, I can just build this using a few actual key framed orbs.

Frankenstein’s Lightning: This card allows you to activate a character at no cost and still allows you to normally activate a character this turn.  I believe this only refers to characters that you’ve lost to your discard pile, but this still needs to be clarified.  The animation will involve a lightning bolt/electric shock jolting the discard pile.  I’m not sure if we will be able to animate the discard pile reacting to the jolt, and I also am unsure of the logistics of the character selection.  Is the most recently discarded character brought back, or does the player have a choice of recently discarded characters?  I’m currently looking into different ways of creating a realistic lightning effect that doesn’t use Maya Paint since that is identifiable and overused.

Graveyard Daemon: This card forces the target player (you can pick if you’d like to use this on yourself or not) to shuffle their bookshelf back into the library and draw five new cards.  I decided to stick with the fire idea that was originally written in the notes document.  I would like to have flames shoot up to form a ring around the Graveyard Daemon card.  They’ll start at a certain point around the circumference and ramp up from there.  I’d like to have the Daemon card disintegrate, but if that winds up being too processing intensive it can just fade out as the flames subside.  The flames will be done with particles, but I’m not yet sure about the card disintegration.

I am probably 80% done the planning process for my cards and just need to have a few questions answered before I begin actually designing them.  I worked about 8 hours this week, but definitely plan to work more in future weeks as I dive into 3d work and less on planning.

This week, I had continued to work on sculpting the Tiny Tim model- the body’s pretty much finished, I added some texture to the fabric of his sweater, boots and pants. I began trying to figure out how I would include hair on the character without actually using fur.

The method I found to be most helpful was taking a ring primitive from the ZBrush library and utilizing the masking tools to isolate individual rows on the ring. After I had isolated the different rows, I used ZBrush’s deformation menu to inflate the rows, giving the ring a more ridged appearance. I used the move tool like a smudge brush and pushed the ring into the shape that a lock of hair would take. The result is a very stylized head of hair made up of smaller chunks. There is some worry that the poly count that results from this method will bog down Maya once I import it, so the backup plan will likely just be hair sculpted directly onto the model.

Beginnings of Tim's hair

Everything’s pretty self-contained on the model to keep clothing from intersecting with the model underneath. Also, since Tim’s movements will be limited somewhat, there won’t be a need for sweater sleeves to be flapping around or anything. Also, I’ve decided to forgo bare hands on the model and give him mittens. I felt this was appropriate given the character’s costume and in the interest of time.

The next stage of completing the bulk of the Tiny Tim model will be to retopologize a lower resolution version of the mesh so that it can be rigged, and to model Tim’s leg brace and crutch in Maya. The hours spent on work this week would divide into approximately 7-8 hours spent on finishing Tim’s costume and researching/beginning the hair sculpting. The model is about 40% finished, and I will be taking the time these coming weeks to work solely on adding his hair/mittens and bringing him into maya.

Aside from that I finished some tentative designs for the attack arrows that will be used to power character’s attacks as well as the face designs for the Character, Device and Lexicon cards. I based the style and color scheme on Ben’s design for the card backs. All cards will feature a relevant image (the current ones are just placeholders), a glyph to be read by the camera in the upper left corner, the card’s description and a quote/definition of the card at the bottom. Also, on the character cards, the circular sections on the right will depict the movement (arrow) cards needed for the attack. Time taken: 4-5 hours for the arrows and creating/tweaking the card designs. About 90% finished, just need some confirmation on the design choices.

Potential movement arrow designs

Card front designs